The Lesson
by Galahan
Summary: The sequel to The Revenge, but perfectly capable of standing mostly on its own. A small trick Mithrandir Plays gets Elladan and Elrohir into a world of trouble. Please read and review.
1. Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Except for Biric.

Author's Note: Thanks to Megan, who gave EooL lots of ideas. And thanks to Ivy, who, when this story was shoved away in the back corner of my brain where I was trying to forget about it because it wouldn't do what I wanted, got me writing again with two sentences. 

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The Lesson

Galahan

"How much longer will you be staying, Mithrandir? It is rare for you to spend a day or two here in Imladris, yet already you have been here a fortnight. Is there something going on that I should know about?" Elrond, Lord of Imladris, questioned his friend.

However, Mithrandir was a hard nut to crack, possibly because of his extreme nuttiness. The old wizard merely gave a mysterious smile and said, "Just teaching a lesson or two to some friends," with an even more mysterious twinkle in his eye.

Elrond let the matter drop.

***

The twin sons of Elrond were in the library, attempting to tell a rather skeptical Estel horror stories about Mithrandir. The three of them were so preoccupied with this that they failed to notice a grey figure lurking in a corner of the library. They didn't hear the softly whispered words of power, nor did they feel the slight tingling of magic working upon them.

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"And if he starts to tell the story about the three trolls who argued for so long over how to eat their victims that the sun came up and turned them to stone, be wary. Don't let him distract you, because it's not the trolls you'll have to worry about. It's him! And he doesn't have problems with the sun! He'll chop you up and eat you for dinner!" Elladan's horror stories definitely needed a lot of work before they could actually be classified as horror. Especially considering the fact that Estel was totally not buying it.

"Why is you hair lighter, Elladan?" asked Elrohir.

Normally, the twins' hair was, like the rest of them, identical. But now Elladan's hair appeared a shade or two lighter. 

"What did you do to it?" Elrohir asked in a tone that indicated things like this were a commonplace event with Elladan. He couldn't remember anything his brother had gotten into recently that might change his hair color.

"It is not lighter, Elrohir. You're imagining things." When Elladan was finished saying this, his hair lightened another shade, as if for the sole purpose of contradicting his words. 

"Yes, it is, Elladan!" Now even Estel noticed the difference. At a shout, of course. 

"Elladan's going grey, Estel," Elrohir teased.

"But he doesn't act old enough to have grey hair," said a rather confused Estel. 

"Estel, if actions were a measure of age, I'd expect Elladan to wet the bed every night." Elrohir commented dryly. 

Elladan simply simmered. But at least he simmered in silence.

Just then, a servant walked in and announced that Elrond wanted to see them all at dinner on time, so they had better go get ready. 

"No, he doesn't really want to see us. He just doesn't want us embarrassing him by coming in late," grumbled Elladan. His hair lightened.

Elrohir was quick to say, "You know that's not true. Hey, your hair has lightened again." Hw paused to think for a moment, then said, "Tell me a lie, Elladan." 

Elladan shrugged his shoulders and exchanged a puzzled look with Estel, but complied. He then said, not a little melodramatically, "Estel, you are my son." Elladan's hair lightened a little more, to a medium brown.

"Now, tell the truth," Elladan instructed.

"Uh... my name is Elladan." Elladan's medium brown hair darkened to a dark brown.

"It's like Pinelfio's nose! It tells whether or not he's telling the truth!" shouted Estel. 

"Exactly. Now, come on, you two. If we're late for dinner, father will kill us." Elrohir's hair lightened slightly.

"You've got Pinelfio hair, too!" shouted a very excited Estel. He apparently was incapable of saying anything at a normal volume level.

"It would appear so." Elrohir's hair darkened back to normal at the voicing of this truthful, if obvious, statement.

"What are we going to do? There's a delegation from Mirkwood here tonight! There's not way we'll make it through the whole night without lying!" Elladan was in a near panic. Alright, there was no 'near' about it. Elrohir was in the same boat.

It was Estel who saved the day, and damned it beyond anything the three of them could have imagined. "Sit by me! Talk to me, not those Mirkwood people!" His intentions might have been more than a little selfish, but the idea was decent.

The trio was on time for dinner, to Elrond's surprise and everyone else's relief. The twins even made it through most of dinner without lying. But then, one of the elves from Mirkwood called everyone's attention to the fact that the twins were sitting with Estel, talking only to Estel, and not paying attention to the adults' conversation about political matters.

"Why don't you join our conversation, my lords?" asked one of the Mirkwood elves with a voice colder than the snow piled thick outside the walls of the Last Homely House. The twins had to politely avoid giving a reason for not paying attention to whatever incredibly important topic was being discussed or better yet, pretend that they had been paying attention, yet say nothing worth hearing in many, many words.

Glorfindel, trying to save them, put more nails in the coffin when he asked, "What are your views on the issue?"

Elladan and Elrohir exchanged a panicked look that probably didn't go unnoticed.

After the briefest of pauses, Elrohir managed to calmly say, "We understand that there are many complexities to the issue and that there is no one solution. Since our father is much more experienced in such matters, we support his decision." He then elbowed Elladan, who plastered a fake smile on his face and nodded. Hopefully no one would notice that their hair was no longer ebony.

The response made several of the Mirkwood elves snicker, but Elrond seemed quite happy to hear it. Glorfindel and Erestor looked as if the twins had just announced that they would marry a pair of dithering idiots that their father had picked out because they would help secure a political alliance. Mithrandir laughed out loud. 

"So the two of you will marry Thranduil's eldest daughters. It's settled!" Elrond said with an enormous smile.

The twins exchanged horrified glances. No wonder Glorfindel and Erestor had looked so shocked. They had just agreed to marry dithering idiots that their father had picked out because they would help secure a political alliance. A few minutes later they excused themselves, saying they needed to put Estel to bed.

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Author's Note: You like? You review? Why not? Couldn't think of anything to say? Too lazy? Click the button and say two words: 'nice job', or, if you didn't like that, 'good story'. If you're really unmotivated, all you need to have is one word: 'nice' or 'good' will do fine all by themselves! If you're extremely unmotivated, then all you need do is send a blank review! I won't delete it, I'll just think you're quite odd, but at least you left me a nice review. 


	2. Chapter Two

Disclaimer: I don't own it. Except for Biric. And a few other characters. 

Author's Note: I'm sorry this took so long to get up. I'd make up a decent excuse, but then I'd have one less for explaining lack of homework.

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In Estel's room, the twins were panicking. After a few 'This is all YOUR fault's, they admitted that all three of them had played a part in getting them stuck in this situation. Or, at least, getting Elladan and Elrohir stuck in this situation. Estel didn't have any problems whatsoever.

"But what are we going to do? Father is so pleased with us. How are we supposed to tell him that we don't want to marry Thranduil's daughters and only agreed with him because we didn't have a clue about what was going on? Plus, we've already agreed to the marriage in front of the envoy from Mirkwood!" Elladan was very, very upset.

"At least your hair is black again," pointed out Estel, who, not being engaged to anyone himself, found the whole thing quite amusing. He was completely ignored.

"It isn't that bad, Elladan. Maybe we should just marry them." At his brother's shocked look, Elrohir continued, "Did you see the look on Father's face when we agreed with him? He was so proud of us. Besides, those girls haven't been out of Mirkwood much at all. They could live there and we could live here and never see them. It isn't like either of us has a significant other."

Elladan snapped out of his shock to say, "Have you ever met those girls? I visited Mirkwood when Father decided that we were too close to each other and needed to make other friends, remember? They're horrid! They spent as many hours as possible chasing after guys, tying them up, and doing horrible things to them. And then they decided that they liked me! Those girls! Remember?"

Elrohir paled and nodded. He did indeed remember hearing about his brother with his hair prettily braided with flowers woven in and face plastered with makeup. "Maybe if we went to Father and explained..." he sighed. "It's no use, is it?"

Elladan shrugged. "We have to try."

When the twins had finished putting Estel in bed and were almost done with his bedtime story, the head of the Mirkwood delegation, the very same elf who had been annoyed with the twins for paying too much attention to Estel at dinner, came in to tell them that he thought they were wonderful with children and that he'd look forward to seeing theirs in Mirkwood. He also mentioned that with the major wedding plans mostly complete, the Mirkwood elves would be leaving at dawn. 

"Dawn?" Elladan echoed. "We have to speak to Father now!"

The twins easily found Elrond in the library, looking at maps with Mithrandir and discussing some important but incomprehensible matter with the wizard. It was a sign of just how pleased Elrond was with them that he let them stay and paused in his conversation with Mithrandir to hear them out.

"We need to tell you something," Elrohir began, then paused. Elrond motioned for them to continue. 

"It's a long story," started Elladan. Elrohir continued, "When we were in the library telling Estel tall tales, we noticed something."

Mithrandir, realizing his fun was almost over, quickly reversed the spell so that telling the truth would make the twins' hair lighten. 

"Our hair gets lighter when we lie and darker when we tell the truth." Because of the reverse effect of the spell, the twins' hair stayed dark. After all, their statement was no longer true.

"Watch, we'll show you," said Elrohir.

"Estel is cool." Elladan's hair lightened. 

"We like men." Elladan's hair darkened again, regaining its normal color.

Elrohir looked at his brother as if he were nuts. Mithrandir just started laughing. Elladan stared at his hair as if it had grabbed a weapon and stabbed him. And somewhere, hiding behind one of the many bookshelves in the enormous library, Biric, one of the elves from Mirkwood, heard Elladan's last statement and grinned. After all, he had fancied the twin sons of Elrond for a while and he now knew that they were interested in males. He ignored the fact that he couldn't tell them apart from plenty of other dark haired elves in Imladris.

Elrond walked around the table that the maps were spread upon and placed a hand on each of his sons shoulders. He then said, very solemnly, "I am very proud of the two of you for making that decision at dinner. It is perfectly natural to be nervous about it. But don't worry about things; just relax. We'll ask Galadriel and Arwen to plan everything about the wedding shower, the meals, and the actual ceremony while together we can plan the rest of the details in the next few weeks. Everything will be fine. Now, why don't we discuss this further in the morning? You two should get some sleep."

Thus dismissed, however politely, Elladan and Elrohir wandered back to their room, where they did not go to sleep. Rather, they worried over the problem for much too long and came up with much too little.

"What are we going to do?" asked Elladan. "Could we ask Glorfindel?"

Elrohir shook his head.

"Erestor?"

Another head shake.

"Then who are we going..."

Elrohir looked up from his contemplation of the floor to figure out why his brother had trailed off in the middle of his sentence. The only thing obviously out of place was the smoke pouring out of Elladan's ears. Apparently long disuse of his brain was showing. "What is it, Elladan?"

"Don't you think it's funny?" Elladan muttered, almost rhetorically. 

"What? What is funny, Elladan?" Elrohir was completely lost. 

"Before we were telling Estel stories in the library, who did we see doing research?" Elladan asked.

"Mithrandir, Erestor, an elf or two from Mirkwood, and plenty of others. Why do you ask?" Elrohir was still lost. 

"Who was there when whatever was up with our hair changed?"

"Mithrandir, Father, and probably a servant or two. But I don't see what you're getting at, Elladan!"

"Who was suspicious of us after that prank we played with the snowballs that we blamed on Estel?"

"Mithrandir, Glorfindel, and Father." Elrohir had apparently realized he was going to have to wait Elladan out in order to get the answer he wanted.

Elladan directed a scathing look at his brother that was obviously meant to convey Elladan's extreme irritation with Elrohir's apparent idiocy. "Who just happens to be a wizard perfectly capable of pulling a minor stunt like changing hair color?"

You're saying it was Mithrandir who did this to us? Why? What does he gain?"

"Because we know he hates to have anyone get Estel in trouble. He was probably trying to teach us a lesson."

"Well, it's a good one. If we've learned it now, do you think he'll take the spell off? And put things to rights?"

Elladan sighed. "We can hope. We'll talk to him in the morning before breakfast."

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A/N: Again, many apologies for the delay. I'll try to be better about next chapter. In the meantime, be a nice person and drop a review! 


	3. Chapter Three

Disclaimer: I still don't own it. What a surprise! 

Author's Note: I was faster with this chapter, wasn't I? Stick with me, even if it's a slow ride.

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The next morning, Elladan and Elrohir ambushed Mithrandir as he was coming out of his guest chambers. Before the old wizard had a chance to speak, the twins quickly told him about their suspicions as to the perpetrator of the color-changing spell on their hair that had started this whole mess. 

"Well, you've gotten yourselves into this mess quite well. Now get yourselves out of it. By yourselves!" Mithrandir turned and headed down to breakfast. The twins followed.

Reaching the private dining room that was empty except for Elrond, Mithrandir took pity on them. "Perhaps a bath might help matters." Having giving the twins all the help he intended to, he entered the dining room. 

The twins were furious, but plastered rather fake smiles on their faces upon seeing their father's doting expression. These smiles grew even more fake when the conversation turned to children's antics and how excited Elrond would be to be a grandfather. Mithrandir just sat there with an amused twinkle in his eye and the largest smile on his face since the last time he'd seen pipeweed from the Southfarthing. Estel, who had arrived late, enjoyed the tales Elrond told about the twins as children.

Back in their rooms after breakfast, the twins were once more trying to figure out what they were going to do. It looked like the carpet was going to wear out before they found a solution.

Finally, Elrohir said, "We have to just explain everything to Father. He'll be disappointed in us and relations with Mirkwood will suffer, but he wouldn't force us into a marriage we don't want. 

Neither twin was excited about the prospect. Therefore, they decided to put it off until after dinner. But when they tried to tell Elrond that they didn't want to get married and that this situation was a mistake, Elrond simply told them that it was perfectly normal to be nervous before such a life-changing event as marriage but that it would be wonderful once it was all over. He then asked if the invitations should be written in emerald, sapphire, or gold ink.

"Blood red," replied Elladan.

"Emerald! Excellent choice, my son! Just what I would have picked!" Elrond spoke as if the reply he'd received was the one he had wanted. The twins decided that this was hopeless.

The weeks whipped by, with Elladan and Elrohir trying to tell Elrond that they had no intention of marrying. When it was decided that it would actually happen in Lothlorien, so Galadriel and Arwen could plan things to the finest detail, the twins felt even worse. Knowing their grandmother, they realized that they were never going to get out of marrying Thranduil's daughters. They were definitely running out of escape routes. In fact, they couldn't see any. Except for the library window that didn't shut properly any more. It hadn't appreciated the cornmeal from Estel's mealworm-in-a-jar being spilled all over its fasteners.

A few days after the summer solstice, a small group of elves from Mirkwood had come to finalize exactly which weddings would take place. Biric, one of King Thranduil's advisors, led the envoy. The visit wasn't absolutely necessary, but Thranduil wanted to know more about the elves his daughters would be marrying. After all, they might have been a pair of immature idiots who never stopped playing pranks. Wait a second, that's what they were...

As the twins, Elrond, and Biric relaxed with some wine in Elrond's study (well, Elrond and Biric were relaxing anyway) they discussed which of Thranduil's daughters would marry which of Elrond's sons. Elrond excitedly compared the character traits of Elladan and Elrohir to Biric's far more subdued descriptions of Megwindilas and Carowania. Eventually it was decided that both parties would go to Lothlorien a month early to allow the betrotheds time to decide exactly who it was that they were betrothed to.

The situation thus settled, it was decided that the Mirkwood elves would remain for a week or two to allow the horses, guards, and diplomats time to rest before returning to Mirkwood. It also allowed some time for working out any important details that hadn't been taken care of by Galadriel or Arwen yet.

The next day, the twins were glumly sitting in the library with Estel, helping him do exceedingly nasty homework on the Valar, the First Age, and probably other subjects as well. Yes, that's right. It was a crossword puzzle. Glorfindel could sink no lower.

"14 down has to be Maedhros, Elladan. Who else would Morgoth have hung by his right hand and have been rescued by Fingon?"

"All right, all right, I believe you. Elbereth wouldn't work with the ones we've already found anyway," replied Elladan. This discussion was rapidly losing its glumness.

Elrohir refrained from bashing his head against the table. "122 across is Ecthelion," he managed to say.

"How did we go from 14 down to 122 across? I'm pretty sure 15 down is Sauron. Besides, E-c-t-h-e-l-o-n is one letter too short for the space."

This time Elrohir did bash his head against the table. After the first smack, he decided that bashing his head against the table was actually more painful than carrying on a conversation with his brother. Elrohir replied, "Firstly, your arm is covering all the numbers from 15 down to 121 across." Elladan's arm quickly moved.

"Secondly, the Elven king who died at the Last Alliance was Gil-galad, not Sauron, and definitely not Sauron spelled S-a-r-o-r-i-o-n. Thirdly, Ecthelion spelled correctly fits 122 across perfectly."

"Oh," was Elladan's only answer.

Biric was sure that the twin sons of Elrond kept talking, but from his position half-hidden under a reading table across the library, he couldn't hear them. That was alright, though. Even if he couldn't hear their beautiful, melodious voices, he could see their perfectly formed features. 

With a sigh, he returned his attention to the poem he was writing about and to the twins. So far it read:

Roses are red

Violets are blue

I love looking at your head

Because I love you

When I tried to talk, you fled

You don't have a clue

How much my heart bled

But my love is true

Biric stopped. It wasn't very good; even he could tell that. Plus he couldn't think of anything else to rhyme with 'red', 'head', 'fled', and 'bled'. With another sigh, he crumpled up the sheet of parchment. 

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A/N: Leave me a review and tell me how much you'd love to have Biric stalking you! Seriously, reviews are nice. The more I get, the more motivated I am. So it's really in your best interest...


	4. Chapter Four

Disclaimer: Still don't own it.

Author's note: Apologies for the extreme delay. No, I don't have a very good excuse. Read it anyway!

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Pulling out another piece of parchment, Biric began to draw the twins. Inside a heart, of course. He hoped he could capture their beauty...

There, a line added and Elrohir's torso was on the page. Another couple of lines and Elrohir had complete arms. A bit more work and Elrohir's face was done. Some coloring and Elrohir's long, black hair was finished. Biric quickly finished the lines that became the table, then started work on Elladan. Once that was finished, he added the single most important feature: the heart around the entire picture.

Just before Biric could add "I love Elladan and Elrohir" to the drawing, one of his fellow elves from Mirkwood spotted him under the table.

"What did you drop?" the other elf asked, making Biric jolt up and slam his head into the table he had been hiding under. "I'm sure I can help you find it." The elf decided to ignore the fact that he'd seen Biric lying there drawing for an extended period of time.

"Uh..." Biric was definitely caught off guard. Well, he was either caught off guard or he had a concussion from slamming his head into the table. Either way, he recovered quickly and said, "I was searching for my quill. Now I've found it." He quickly scrambled to his feet.

On the way up, however, Biric's companion got a good look at Biric's drawing. After he glanced out the window and saw the stable, doors swung wide to let air in, with two black horses visible in it, the elf quickly guesses that that was the subject of the drawing. When the elf said that the horses looked very pretty, Biric nearly exploded. 

When Biric had calmed down some, the poor elf tentatively said, "So maybe the building is more like... an irregular polygon than a rectangle. Your horses have gotten very good! Their stick legs are almost the same length this time. And you've done an excellent job with their manes." At Biric's icy glare, the elf darted out of the library and, judging by his speed and direction, was halfway to Mirkwood by sunset.

Biric looked down at his stick-figure drawing with the very messed up heart/stable. With a sigh, he glanced around suspiciously, then quickly scrawled "I love Elladan and Elrohir" on the paper. Now it was finished.

Seeing the twins and Estel leaving the library mentioning something about spending time in the warm summer sun, Biric carefully folded up the drawing, rescued his crumpled poem, and followed them outside.

When he had the twins in sight again, he saw that their heads were close together and that they were having a quiet, rather suspicious, discussion. Deciding that they had noticed his eternal love for them and were realizing that they harbored similar feelings for him, he quickly joined them.

There was a slight scuffle as Elladan stole the crossword puzzle from his brother. Biric said, "Hello. Have you realized that you are madly in love with me yet?"

Neither twin batted an eyelash. "Yeah, whatever. Ask Father. By the way, do you happen to know if 'Manwe' is 83 down?" one of the twins asked distractedly. In fact, the only one who'd really processed what Biric had said was Estel, who was rolling around on the ground laughing. Neither the twins nor Biric paid him any attention.

Biric was floating on cloud nine. The twins had just admitted that they loved him! He was sure of it. They had even mentioned Manwe, whose name had to be invoked at weddings! He happily wandered off.

When Biric came across a field littered with daisies, he couldn't resist picking one. And once he picked it, he was tempted to play the "loves me, loves me not" game. But didn't he already know they loved him?

Suddenly Biric froze. He knew one of the twins loved him, because one of the twins had spoken. What about the other twin? He hadn't said anything. What if only one twin loved him? Which one was it?

Looking down at the flower, inspiration hit. Biric yanked off a petal. "Elladan loves me."

Another petal. "Elrohir loves me."

A third petal went flying. "They BOTH love me."

"Elladan...Elrohir...both..." The cycle continued until the last petal fell with an "Elrohir loves me." That was it then? Just Elrohir? What about Elladan?

However, Biric's eyes quickly lit upon a brown, dried up, dead petal barely clinging to the rest of the now-mutilated flower. Biric ripped this petal off with unnecessary vigor and shouted, "They both love me! Yes! HOORAY! They both love me!" He was quite oblivious when almost all of the elves in the surrounding area fled the scene immediately.

In fact, the only people left were Elladan, Elrohir, and Estel. He raced over to the twins and happily exclaimed, "You both love me!" Biric was jumping up and down like a very excited three-year-old. 

"Of course. Isn't Luthien the lady who loved Beren so much that she helped him challenge Morgoth to get the Silmaril her father demanded before he'd allow them to marry?"

Another reference to love! Biric was ecstatic. He completely ignored Elrohir making fun of Elladan's summary, saying it was over-simplified and incredibly lacking in poetry. He also ignored Elladan's comeback that summaries were supposed to be short and simple, not as long as the book they came from and certainly not in iambic pentameter.

Biric floated for the rest of the day, completely convinced that the twins were in love with him. In fact, he completely floated for the remaining two days of his stay in Imladris. And for the trip back to Mirkwood. And... well, you get the point. He was sad to be leaving them, but was comforted by the fact that he'd see them in a few short weeks, when they came to Lorien for the wedding. And he could always just busy himself with floating. After all, he'd been getting some practice in.

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A/N: I'd give you some estimate of when I'll get the next chapter up, but I'm quite sure that I won't manage to have it up by then. Let's see if putting up a timeframe is what jinxes these uploads.


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